One Size Fits All?

My wife and I just returned from a vacation in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We parked in the daily garage at Dulles International Airport, and I happened to notice the growing number of very small cars in the facility–Smarts, Fiat 500s, Kia Souls, Minis, and many others. One Smart was parked next to a mammoth Suburban, and had we been looking for a spot, I’m sure we would have mistaken the Smart’s space as vacant until we started to turn in and found a very small vehicle in the 20-foot stall.

According to one city’s municipal code, “The minimum size of a standard parking space shall be nine feet wide and 18 feet long. Parking spaces within enclosed garages shall have an interior dimension of at least 10 feet wide and 20 feet long. The minimum size of a compact parking space shall be eight feet wide and 16 feet long.”

What’s a parking operator to do? Sales of subcompacts have more than doubled in the last couple of years, and given other trends in society, we can expect that more people– especially young people–will buy and drive small, fuel-efficient vehicles, to say nothing of motorcycles and bikes. How do we accommodate all of these vehicles while keeping our customers happy?

Restriping is expensive and can be problematic. Sometimes the old stripes are still visible and confuse parkers. Does a Smart need the same amount of space as a Suburban? Obviously not. You could stack two Smarts in a typical space. And to make matters even more complicated, I drive a Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid and need spaces with charging equipment. Lots more bikes, motorbikes, motor scooters, and motorcycles are looking for parking spaces. Pass the Rolaids, please. Things are going to be messy for a while.

Share this post:

Dave Feehan is president and CEO of Civitas Consultants LLC and former president of the International Downtown Association. He is a member of IPI's Accreditation Committee and a frequent contributor to various professional journals. He is working on a new book, Design Downtown for Women - Men will Follow.